Descriptive
Writing
As Sue opened her white, round window with
chipped off paint to breathe in the fresh cold morning air, she heard her
mother's voice ringing through the house like a thousand thunders drumming
together calling unto her.
Anyone reading
the sentence above will appreciate the mental image that the words helped to
create to visualize and understand the
author's message about Sue's mother. Painting a vivid picture, afford readers a
deeper understanding of a text and cause
a text to come alive, authors utilize descriptive words and phrases as well
as literary devices. Without descriptive
words, our pieces of writing will be as bland as food without salt.
On 29th October,
2019, we began to delve into a new genre of writing, Descriptive writing. Our
lecturer deviated from the ways that she would normally teach the genres of
writing and adopted a new strategy. She utilized lesson planning to teach this
genre. We were placed in groups of three to engage in the lesson planning whereby
we had to develop objectives and brainstorm ideas to describe a favorite fruit.
One of our prepared cognitive objectives,
was to define the term adjectives. Our introduction of the lesson began to unfold, however, time was against
and so we had to complete the remainder of the lesson plan for homework. When
describing such topic, it was proposed that a graphic organizer was
effective to be used in the classroom to
help students generate descriptive ideas
utilizing their senses. This graphic aid
has proven to be very useful when teaching descriptive writing across all grade
levels as it allows the students to
better organize their ideas logically, generate adequate ideas to
incorporate in their pieces and integrate sensory details to add substance to
their writing. Learning of this graphic aid made the thought of descriptive
writing a lot more intriguing and less complex as some persons perceive it.In
retrospect, we believe that if such technique had been introduced to us back in
the early grades, many of the challenges that we grappled with in writing would
have been averted. Our course lecturer’s hand in ensuring that we are fairly
equipped with the skills and competencies that we need to become efficacious
teachers of writing is truly commendable. We do hope to continue learning
techniques from her so that we can
effect changes in our schools and make writing more enjoyable to the
many students entrusted in our care.
The ability to describe people, places,
experiences or objects accurately is a useful life skill. Whether you are
chatting with a stylist about "hooking" you up with a particular
hairstyle, sharing a funny or startling scene from your day via email or text
message, reporting on some concept in a biology class, you will use description
to bring your point across. Descriptive writing is utilized everyday by all of
us. As a result, it should be a skill taught well by teachers of writing as early
as the primary grades.
The
five senses cluster
Our senses
provide us with information around us. They tell us how smooth an object feels;
sweet, sour or bitter something tastes;
how bright the sunflower looks and how
sweet scented or malodorous scent of something. As teachers of writing we must
not take for granted the use of our senses when teaching descriptive writing.
Many times when students are engaged in descriptive writing, they seldom use
their five senses to gather information
about the world. Were they taught how to gather details about their
environment? Is a very important question to ask.They are not to be blamed for
their deficiencies in this area but the blame belongs to the teacher.
To ameliorate
this problem, there are several strategies that
efficacious teachers of writing should deploy in the classroom to get students to the point
of automatically brainstorming descriptive ideas about an object or
person. One of those strategies is the
use of the five senses cluster. This is a graphic organizer which contains five
different compartments which is used to generate ideas that relate to a
specific sense. It is used during the prewriting phase of the writing process.
Students will be able to seamlessly produce ideas about their topic by ensuring
that they add information in the five senses cluster where applicable.
What if this
strategy was used in the classroom back in the day? Would it have had a great
effect on our descriptive writing skills? Teachers merely just asked us to
write a descriptive piece but never demonstrated how it was done resulting in
poor pieces. With the use of the five senses cluster to accumulate information
on a certain object, person or animal students will have a stronger platform to
write clear, descriptive texts exuding clarity by creating mental pictures.
Other strategies
that can yield success in the teaching of descriptive writing include using
mentor texts so students can locate and annotate on the description used;
teacher modeling so students can live vicariously through the teacher and
writing prompts to encourage students to write as the write on relatable
experiences.
Below is an example of a five senses cluster that can be used in the development of a descriptive piece.
Embedded below are links to sites that will provide additional resources on descriptive writing as well as the teaching of it. Please ensure that you take time to read to this video for your edification on this graphic organizer.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zx499j6/revision/4
https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/descriptive_writing
Good Job!
ReplyDeleteWas Sue's mom angry with her dad?
Interesting way to begin this entry... Descriptive writing should indeed be written with the five senses. Teachers must take note that all genres of writing do not utilize one format or one pre-writing technique. With description, the reader must be placed at the particular scene spoken about in the piece. The five senses cluster is the way to make this happen.
Any one piece of writing should move the reader into wanting to meet the author.
Comment above --from Jina Jonas
DeleteExceptional piece. I really loved the introductory sentence which highlights what a some aspects of descriptive writing. The images used were useful particularly the 5 senses cluster. This organizer can be very useful in the higer grades. Great read. Job well done!
ReplyDeleteGreat introduction ! It definitely painted a vivid picture in my mind . It encapsulated the features of descriptive writing . I would have loved to know why Sue's mom was angry though. I have developed a love for the use of the five senses cluster as it makes it feasible to develop a descriptive piece.
ReplyDeleteNasha John.
Great job this descriptive piece has captioned my attention reading the introduction made me eager to read the piece. As teacher when teaching descriptive writing we must model using the five (5) senses cluster to students. This is a very innovative way where students can formulate their ideas from the senses cluster to develop a well efficient descriptive.
ReplyDeleteA captivating beginning which really had me glued. A s individuals who will be teachers of writing, we are to encourage the use of the five senses cluster for descriptive pieces among our students in order to produce pieces that are clear to the reader. Descriptive writing opens the adjective cave to students which allows students to use multiple appropriate adjectives when describing people, places and things. Good writers always ensure that their pieces are captivating and clear so that the reader can relate and understand what is being described, the use of the five senses clusters assist with that and helps with organization in their pieces. Good job on keeping me glued!!
ReplyDeleteWritten by: Abigail Bascombe